I wasn't going to respond but since so many more people are crapping on Rituals I figure I will now:

Quote:

Originally Posted by FulciLuvver

The transfer (while 16x9 enhanced) is a mess. Clearly taken from a battered print (described as "vault element" on back cover), the movie looks like it was dragged through the mud and over a field of rocks. Scratches, dirt, and messy reel changes abound here, and while the film's murky final act was always problematic, it seems even worse here. The black levels are non-existent and the audio wouldn't sound much worse if were played through a drive-in theatre's worst car speaker.

There are sections of the movie that are passable, but its clear that no work was put in to clean this transfer in any way, and it is more than a little disappointing after all this wait to see such a slipshod product come out.

I never had a problem with legitimate film damage or bad film elements. Compression issues, DNR, EE, macro-blocking, all that is the full fault of the people doing the transfer and often I'll skip a release because of that. But film elements are film elements and I don't mind when I'm reminded that I'm watching actual film.

As fans we should be aware of the fact that, yes maybe only 500 people care enough to actually buy these disc. When less that 100,000 people want to watch something it ain't cheap to deliver on it. Seems to be a hard concept for fans to comprehend. Scratch removal isn't a switch you turn on and like magic a film print becomes perfect. It's a painstaking frame by frame process that cost significant amounts of money. Unless you and 499 of your buddies are willing spend hundreds of dollars for a Rituals DVD that might be the best you'll get. Instead a few thousand will just download the torrent.

Now I'm not a big defender of Code Red, in fact my arguments with Bill over Beyond the Door at Best Buy may be one of the reasons he left. But poor film elements are not the fault of Code Red. They've obviously spent years and good amount of money trying to get the best elements. If they cranked up some DNR and EE I'd be pissed. If there's reel changes and some film damage I'm not going to mind them one bit.

__________________
The combined weight of the horrors I have authored wrought would crush your carbon hearts into perfect diamonds of terror!

But poor film elements are not the fault of Code Red. They've obviously spent years and good amount of money trying to get the best elements.

Which is fine - but don't market off as a quality release without any kind of information prior or on the artwork itself. A general consumer is more than likely not going to pick something like this up, let's face it, Code Red's releases haven't been in stores much if at all. So a vast majority of their sales is online and mostly by fans.

So the harm in at least informing the fans that the quality isn't up to par with what they might expect but is the best presentation of the film itself to date is nil. A fan is not going to care about scratches, reel changes, etc. if they know about it before hand, sometimes that can add a certain charm to the film.

But passing it off as something else by saying "vault elements from producer" which anyone would assume meant it came from a relatively clean print with little to no damage and not expect any kind of a backlash is just ludicrous.

We live in the digital age, Blu Ray is becoming the new standard, heck people aren't even happy with some Blu Ray releases by high profile companies because of DNR, or that the bit rate isn't high enough or what have you. Does anyone honestly think that this would be acceptable and people would just shrug it off and assume that Code Red did the best they could or know that the prints of this film are in rough shape???

Certainly not.

Point is, this is something we should have known about long before we held the disc in our rotten hands, not while we sit down to watch it after shelling $20-25 for it.

Seriously, he should close that Twitter account. Those irrate remarks reflect poorly upon him.

Yes... and Iīm one of those.

Every month I spend 100€/150€ on DVDs/Blu-Rays and about 85% of those are American releases (Code Red, Shout, etc.)

From what I read from another european forums, many people buys Code Red titles. So, Code Redīs income also comes from Europe.
This is an open market and no one should point out the finger to anyone just for buying something from another country.
Every person should buy what he considers the best edition without some random guy pointing the finger for that.

"walk into a speciality store & 75% was imports & hardly any code red (mostly used). Y sell a DAY AT THE BEACH FOR $25, when mine is cheaper?"

Maybe it was an import store...
The import for "Day At The Beach" maybe expensive on stores but it sure itīs cheaper if you buy it online, and have the plus of being released by Odeon Entertainment.

"maybe I should call a dvd series NASTY VIDEO so people will think it's UK dvd and speciality stores will stock extra copies."

LOL... get him his medicine.

"It's getting to a point I have to slap British Film Board of Classification rating to get these horror fans to buy code red discs."

Double LOL...

"shocked so many American buys import dvd from UK. Do they know that $$$ will never come back to USA and will hurt our economy??"

Sure, and how about those european fans who help your economy???

"Busy day yesterday. Still haven't got much sleep. Is it safe to sleep 5 hrs a day for 2 month in a row?"

I only sleep 5/6 hours a day... and have 2 jobs.

"THIS DINNER SUCKS! I deserve a better life! I'm gonna git the fik out of here!"

"Got a cheap mini-bottle of wine at the .99 cents store. IT'S FLAT!"

"Eating left over pasta without GRATED PARMESAN CHEESE. Looks like worms from SQUIRM. I NEED MY POWERED CHEESE NOW!"

Whatīs wrong with leftovers???

I love my next day frozen pizza...
Next day Pasta is loved in many european countries... You have to leard how to eat next next day pasta... Add some olive oil before eating up your next day pasta... to me has more taste than a fresh made pasta... Try it!!!

"I can no longer make new annoucement due to high volume of complaint. But what if I have warn people that a better version is comimh out??"

Well, I watched Rituals the other day and I'm pretty happy with both the quality (it's not perfect but it's entirely watchable for me) and the fact that I now have this on DVD. Glad to see that they finally got this out and to have it!

I refuse to bitch about a movie we've all been waiting to be released for over a year. It's widescreen, looks much better than a VHS rip, but has some scratches, discoloration in some spots, whatever - boohoo. Deal with it

I refuse to bitch about a movie we've all been waiting to be released for over a year. It's widescreen, looks much better than a VHS rip, but has some scratches, discoloration in some spots, whatever - boohoo. Deal with it

Donīt know if Rituals was a grindhouse/drive-in classic in the day but when it comes to grindhouse/drive-in titles a little specks, dirt and scratches and welcome.

And youīre right.. It's in widescreen and looks much better than a VHS rip

First off, personally I like Bill a lot. About four years ago I directed a documentary about the horror movie bootleg VHS scene of the 90's and a friend of mine streamed it online. Bill watched it and sent me a very nice e-mail over MySpace complimenting it and sharing his thoughts on it. And I have a number of Code Red releases and, while none of them are perfect, almost all of them show a level of dedication that's commendable.

That being said, Bill could definitely handle the communication aspect of the operation better. He needs to get off Twitter or be more discrete about his postings. I can sympathize; I rarely update my Facebook status because I have strong opinions, and am just as likely to post an update saying that I want Obama and Congress to burn in hell (my general feeling when the government almost shut down) as I am to say that I am heading to the grocery store. So for that reason I just avoid using that part of the service. The same thing with message board posting, I would almost say that he should wait twenty-four hours before posting a message so he can think over what he wants to say and express it properly, instead of writing some things that are obviously knee jerk reactions. The latest chapter in this whole mess started when FulciLuvver posted his scathing comments about the quality of the disc, and, nothing against FulciLuvver, but they were the opinions of just one person, and he did not post anything to back up his statements (ie, screencaps). Bill sees that and freaks out, to the point where even people who have a more positive opinion of the image quality are criticizing him for his manners.

If I could give any more suggestions to Bill, I would concur with others that a disclaimer on the back packaging and in the official press release would go a long way. I would also say that it might be beneficial to put one of those two-minute "restoration demonstration" videos on his releases, which would help defend him in the event of accusations that he didn't do any work to clean up a given film.

About four years ago I directed a documentary about the horror movie bootleg VHS scene of the 90's and a friend of mine streamed it online. Bill watched it and sent me a very nice e-mail over MySpace complimenting it and sharing his thoughts on it.

Point is, this is something we should have known about long before we held the disc in our rotten hands, not while we sit down to watch it after shelling $20-25 for it.

Where the hell do you by your Code Red discs from? FYE? I have never spent more than 15 bucks for a Code Red disc, and I have a ton of them.

Are you still pissed at Bill over the emails regarding The Video Dead? No offense, but you seem very passionate in your posts regarding Code Red. It just seems like there is some underlying animosity driving these posts...